The US Preventive Services Task Force is recommending that doctors prescribe statins for people age 40 to 75 with a 10 percent or greater 10-year risk of a heart attack or stroke. Because most of these people have not yet had a heart attack or been diagnosed with heart disease, this use of statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs such as atorvastatin (Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) or simvastatin (Zocor) is considered “primary prevention.”
To figure out if you would be taking a statin for your heart following this recommendation, you can calculate your own 10-year risk here.
Taking a Statin for Your Heart Health?
There is broad agreement that statins are helpful in “secondary prevention,” keeping people with heart disease healthier. But there has been considerable controversy over the effectiveness of statins for primary prevention.
The NNT:
The US Preventive Services Task Force found that 217 people would have to take statins to prevent one death from cardiovascular causes. This is considered the number needed to treat, or NNT. It means that an awful lot of people have to pay for a statin medication and take it every day, whether or not it causes side effects, in order for one person to avoid a fatal heart attack or stroke. More than 200 is relatively high.
This Preventive Services Task Force has made several controversial recommendations (regarding PSA screening, appropriate timing for mammograms and the use of vitamin D and calcium supplements to prevent fractures), but it has not previously made a recommendation on statin use. The new recommendation is likely to increase the number of people taking statins from the current 36 million to over 40 million.
The Task Force stance is compatible with the stated views of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.
What About Side Effects of Taking a Statin?
The new review has determined that people taking statins do not experience a significantly increased risk for muscle problems or diabetes. This decision, though based on randomized controlled trials, could easily be as controversial as the recommendation that many more Americans need to take one of these drugs. We have written frequently about statin side effects, and some people find that these medications can be difficult to tolerate.
